The 'A' Word
by InjuUchiha
Summary: Zack has convinced Cloud to join their school's theatre production...But with Sephiroth, a senior, seemingly out to get him, can the junior deal with being around him so much? Eventual Seph/Cloud


"_What?_ Mr. Lazard, how could you do this to me?"

Angeal sighed heavily from where he sat outside the theater. Next to him, Sephiroth chuckled quietly. Glancing over, Angeal shook his head at silver-haired male. "Why does it not surprise me that you're enjoying this?"

"Because I told you multiple times that when I got the lead, not Genesis, that I would laugh?" Sephiroth replied, one silver eyebrow arched as he smiled slightly.

Indeed, farther down the hall, the red-haired boy had his hands on his hips, fuming at the theater director, Mr. Lazard.

The three boys were seniors at Midgar High School and proud members of the theater group. The cast listing for the year's show had just been posted. After auditions a few weeks before, Genesis had been sure he'd gotten the lead, and had made sure to let Sephiroth know.

"Where's your puppy?" Sephiroth asked after watching Genesis for a few minutes, holding out his hand in front of Angeal.

"Zack? He'll be here soon, I imagine," the other boy answered as he resignedly dug in his pocket and handed twenty gil to Sephiroth.

"Angeeeeal!" Sephiroth pocketed his won money just as the previously mentioned junior rocketed down the hall, flanked by a few others in his grade, and into Angeal's arms.

Laughing, the older boy gave Zack a quick hug before pushing him off his lap and standing. "You got a speaking role this time! Well, again, I suppose...Just don't mess up so much and get it taken away, like you managed to last year."

Zack grinned and saluted sloppily. "Yessir!" he said, before he noticed the still-angry Genesis come walking over and crouch in front of Sephiroth.

"You. Will. Pay. For. This," he said, poking Sephiroth in the chest with each word. "That role was mine! Mine! And you had to take it from me!"

"Don't be such a diva," Sephiroth deadpanned, using two fingers on each hand to push lightly on his friend's shoulders, causing the redhead to fall backwards.

Still snickering at the furious expression Genesis wore, Zack remembered his companions. "Oh! Seph! Meet Cloud!" Zack beckoned the blond behind him forward, then frowned and pulled him physically when he stayed put. "He didn't audition or anything, but I was telling him about how much fun theater is, even though it completely consumes your life, and he decided he'd come and help out with tech and stuff."

Angeal cast his eyes over the blond. He was dressed in simple jeans and a gray t-shirt, and didn't really seem like the theater type...But then again, neither did he and his fellow seniors.

"You're a junior as well, then?" Sephiroth asked, standing. When Cloud nodded, the corner of his mouth quirked up. "Huh. I'd've taken you for a freshmen."

Zack tried to stifle his laughter as Cloud's jaw fell open in obvious indignation, his blue eyes flaring.

"Settle down, boys," Mr. Lazard interjected, appearing and unlocking the doors to the theater. "It's only the first day; I don't want any fights until at least the third."

The seniors gathered their respective things and entered after Lazard, Sephiroth brushing past Cloud rather forcefully and knocking shoulders with him.

Cloud turned to Zack, who was still trying, and failing, not to laugh. "What's his problem?" he asked dryly.

"Seph? Ahh, well, obviously he doesn't like you. Why, I couldn't tell you. He's weird like that." After setting their stuff on a table set to the side of the auditorium, put there specifically for that reason, Cloud looked around the auditorium. Noticing this, Zack said, "C'mon, I'll give you the grand tour!"

"Of the auditorium?" Cloud said dryly.

"No, of the _theatre_," Zack said, winking as he climbed the stairs leading up to the stage, Cloud following behind unenthusiastically. "There's actually lots you need to know. There're two costume lofts, one for show-specific outfits and the other for boxes filled with random clothing. And I'll show you the catwalk, and the costume shoppe, and all the other places that you need to know about." As he talked, they walked behind a leg flat that was already set up on stage right.

When Zack pointed up, Cloud noticed for the first time there was a second floor to the theatre backstage. "That's where the different drops are brought up and down, " Cloud realized Zack was saying. "It's a set of weights and stuff attached to the bars to balance them out...I'd explain better, but since I'm usually on stage, I've never actually had to bring a drop up or down, so, yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, grinning. Then, he moved over to the staircase at the back of the auditorium leading up to the second floor, and Cloud stared at what was probably the steepest set of metal stairs he had ever seen.

"Go up them sideways," Zack advised. "And until you're used to them, go slow," he advised, before practically sprinting up them himself.

"Zack?" Cloud called when he reached the top of the stairs, not seeing his friend.

The mop of black spikes stuck out of a door at the other end of the small room. "In here! I don't why it was unlocked, I guess someone forgot to lock it. I'm glad they did, though! But come on, this is the show-specific costume loft."

Cloud picked his way around the stacks of twenty-pound weights and glanced at the flats, windows, and doors that were leaning up against the back wall of the area. "What are we in here for, again?"

Entering the room, Cloud looked up at the twenty-foot-high shelves, and the boxes upon boxes stacked on the shelves that were roughly every five feet. The shelves lined both walls, and on top of them, other props were stacked precariously, many of them looking like they were about to fall. Pieces of tape stuck to the wood identified what shows the boxes belonged too, - _Annie Get Your Gun, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Wonderful Town, White Christmas, Cinderella, Chess, Anything Goes, Is He Dead?, Irena's Vow; Gaia, there's so many!_ - and each box had the name of the show and a more specific piece of information so whoever was looking wouldn't have to go through every show box.

"This is kind of awesome...," Cloud remarked. "Who put all those boxes up?"

"Oh, it depends on the year. This year it's Yuffie and Elena. You know them both, right?" Zack was standing near the back of the room, next to yet another metal staircase, though this one spiraled up.

Cloud nodded. Both girls were also juniors. Yuffie had a tendency to get on Cloud's nerves, hyper and obnoxious as she was; Elena, though, he got along with fairly well. The blonde was sneaky and from the conversations he'd overheard, she always had a comeback ready.

Zack suddenly snickered and Cloud looked at him quizzically. "Rufus calls Elena 'Stripper Girl' because of how she looks when she's putting up and pulling down boxes up here."

"Umm, Rufus?" Cloud asked at the unfamiliar name.

"Ohh, right," Zack said, having forgotten Cloud wouldn't know him. "You'll meet him later today. Tall, blond, real handsome. ...Horribly gay. He's our choreographer and costume guy."

Cloud simply nodded, still staring at the high shelves, trying to imagine Elena climbing them. That is, before Zack grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the spiral staircase. "Come on, you have to see the catwalk!" Cloud walked up the staircase in front of Zack, this one less steep than the first one.

The blond took the first few steps onto the metal grate that acted as a floor for the people in the catwalk, way above the first row of seats in the auditorium, then stopped dead. "Uhh, Zack, I think we're interrupting something..."

Near the middle of the large metal catwalk, two people were engaged in a heated make-out session, one he knew and one he didn't. A boy with black hair just passed his shoulders had a more slender, redheaded boy pinned against the back grate.

Zack came up behind Cloud, groaning at the scene in front of them. "Oi, Tseng, Reno! Company!" he yelled, and the two boys instantly sprang apart, panting.

The black-haired boy, Tseng, Cloud assumed, simply smoothed out his shirt, clearly his throat, and brushed past them. Reno, though, knowing Cloud despite being a senior, grinned cheekily. "Yo, Cloud," he said as he walked past them, following Tseng. "I always figured you were gay, but I never expected Zack would be your type." He stuck his tongue out and was gone before Cloud could reply, leaving Zack laughing.

"Well, I guess we know why the costume loft was unlocked," he said finally. "Being the student director, Tseng has copies of all the keys that Lazard gives him right after last period every day, so he can unlock everything."

"Zack!" a voice rang up to the catwalk, though whether or not the person was in the auditorium or standing backstage, Cloud wasn't sure. "Get down here!"

"Coming, Angeal!" Zack yelled back, then beckoned to Cloud. "C'mon, it must be time to start. We'll continue this when we can."

"Was there any reason for bringing me into the catwalk?" Cloud asked, slightly irritated.

"Right...Well I figured Reno and Tseng's little show would give you the message," Zack said, and Cloud wasn't sure if he just imagined the slight pink that tinged his friend's cheeks. "The catwalk is where people come when they wanna have a make-out session...Just don't let Lazard find out."

"Zackary!"

"I'm coming already!" Zack shook his head, smiling despite himself as he thought of the senior calling him. "Though I'd let you know in case you ever wanted to partake in the sport...You know, with Sephiroth, maybe..."

Cloud shot him a deadpan look. "I swear to Shiva, Zack, if this whole thing is you trying to play matchmaker, I will hurt you. Now let's go." More than a little irritated at the idea he would ever want to kiss that prick of a senior, Cloud took the lead and lead Zack back down to the stage to listen to Lazard talk.

* * *

><p>"...And with that," Lazard finally tied things up, "I want you all to work hard on this set; leads need to learn their lines, and all of you start listening to the CD's so that when we start vocal practices you'll have at least a feel for the songs. Rufus will be here later, and Cid and Vincent are both here already; if you need something to do, ask them." Cloud wasn't the only person half asleep when Lazard finally finished his pre-tech-work speech he apparently gave every year. It wouldn't have been so bad, and Cloud really had tried to pay attention, but one could only be so comfortable and so attentive while sitting on the floor of the stage for so long...<p>

"Wait. Who're Cid and Vincent?" As the unfamiliar names finally registered with him, the blond turned to Zack, who was sitting next to him, amusing himself with a long circle of string Cloud had no idea where he'd gotten.

"Those guys," Zack pointed to the first row in the audience without looking up, toward a big, blond man with an unlit cigarette in his mouth and a taller man with strangely red eyes and long, spiked black hair. "Cid's the smoker, Vincent's the scary-looking one. They supervise all the tech stuff." As he spoke, the two stood up and walked onto the stage.

"Now listen here, all of ya," Cid started, his cigarette bobbing up and down as he talked. "This may be a simple set, but we need it done as quickly as possible. The sooner it's done, the longer we have to work on details close to the show. Do you want to live here over February break? I sure as hell don't, so get yer asses started already! Some of ya start paintin' these legs, the rest of ya, start cutting wood or doing somethin' productive! Go! Now!"

The highschoolers scrambled up, some milling around before finally going to be assigned to a job. "C'mon, Cloud, let's paint the flats. You're not afraid of heights, you can get up on the ladder so I don't have to!" Zack said, dragging Cloud out into the hallway and opening a door Cloud hadn't even known was there to reveal a small room with a shelf full of paint cans and a stone sink taking up the majority of the floor.

"It looks like blood," Cloud said a few minutes later, watching Zack stir the five-gallon bucket of red paint they were using to paint the flats. They each had a paint roller with a four-foot handle attached to it, and the blond was sitting on the third rung of a twelve-foot-tall, old, lopsided wooden ladder.

Zack dipped the tips of his three middle fingers in the paint and flickered blood-colored droplets onto Cloud's jeans. "It's Apple Red, thank you very much."

Cloud scowled and tried to wipe the paint off, only managing to spread it and make it worse. "Zack! These are new..." he grumbled, glaring at his black-haired friend.

"You'll learn to wear paint clothes and _never_ new clothes, then," Zack said with a bring grin. He filled a black tray with the paint and handed Cloud his roller. "Get up, and then I'll hand you the roller with paint on it. You know how to paint with one of these things?"

"Of course I do," Cloud replied softly, as he was more focused on the ladder moving as he tried to climb it. "Is this thing safe?"

"Not at all!" came the cheerful reply as Cloud was handed his red-covered roller. Silently, he began to roll it up and down the flat near the top, careful not to leave streaks of paint. When the roller started to leave streaks rather than a nice even coat, Cloud handed it down to Zack to put more paint on it, and then took it back and continued. Every so often, he'd come down to shift the ladder over and climb back up to start the next area.

He was on the last section of the first flat, relieved and hoping to get off the ladder for good. He took his roller from Zack, shifting a few minutes later for better range, expecting Zack to steady the ladder like he had been the entire time. But...Zack wasn't there. The short leg of the ladder unsteadied it, and though the ladder itself didn't fall, the shift was enough that Cloud, standing on the final rung of the ladder before the top and not expecting the sudden change, lost his balance and fell off.

_This is gonna hurt,_ he thought as he realized what was happening. He closed his eyes tightly, waiting for his back to hit the hard floor of the stage.

He landed, instead of on the floor, in someone's arms. Mentally running through the people he had seen in the theatre group that seemed strong enough to catch him from twelve feet without falling over themselves or dropping him...

_Uh-oh._ Cloud decided he didn't want to open his eyes, but was eventually forced to, peeking one blue open to meet emerald, just as he had feared. Opening both eyes fully, he attempted to smile sheepishly.

"Umm..."

Sephiroth, arms full of Cloud bridal-style, looked considerate. Suddenly, he sighed. "Why am I holding this?" he asked, though no one but Cloud was there, and he was staring over Cloud's head, out of the auditorium. He moved his arms apart, allowing Cloud to slip through to the floor.

Into the tray of red paint.

"Mother_fucker!_"

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

Welcome to the prologue of The 'A' Word! This fic combines my almost obsessive love of three things; theatre, FanFiction, and Final Fantasy VII. This will be a SephCloud...Eventually. But they'll be friends first, because that's how I roll. Other pairings, though, are up in the air. I prefer Angeal/Zack and Tseng/Reno, but every pairing besides SephCloud is up to my reviewers! Let me know which you wanna see, huh?

Also, all the characters weren't introduced here, but when this gets further along, please let me know if I've forgotten anyone, especially if you were hoping to see them. I don't have plans to include any other Crisis Core character, like Kunsel or Sebastian, unless they're requested. Please, let me know! And I feed off reviews, so hit that button down there!

**Disclaimer:** I am not even an owner of a copy of Final Fantasy VII...Mine is borrowed from my sister's Fiancee. No characters belong to me!


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